Signal Mountain coach Kendra Bell, shown directing her team in last year's Region 4-AA tournament, will try to lead her girls' basketball team from the No. 2 seeding to the championship in this week's District 7-AA tournament at Sequatchie County.If the regular season was any indication, the two Class AA basketball districts in which all the teams are from Chattanooga or the surrounding area could have girls' tournaments tougher to predict than the weather in the Tennessee Valley.
One of those, District 7 at Sequatchie County, gets the local TSSAA postseason started today with Notre Dame's boys playing Grundy County at 6:30 p.m. EST and Signal Mountain's boys taking on Bledsoe County at 8. The tournament is scheduled to end Saturday with the girls' championship at 7 and the boys' final at 8:30. Third-place games will be at 4 and 5:30.
District 6 has its seeding meeting Tuesday and will begin action Wednesday. Championships are Feb. 21 at Hixson, with girls at 6 and boys at 7:30.
Bledsoe County is the top-seeded girls' team in District 7 this year. Lynnsey Keener leads the Lady Warriors in scoring, averaging a little less than 13 points per game, and Brittany Singleton contributes close to nine.
Bledsoe was co-champion with Signal Mountain (22-5) in the regular season. Both had 8-2 league records, but the Lady Warriors handed the Lady Eagles both of their district losses - by a total of three points.
From the start of the season, Maia Rackel has led Signal Mountain at a little more than 10 points per game and Mary Witherspoon has added a little less than 10, but eighth-grade post player Olivia Koontz has provided close to 12.5 per game since joining the team in mid-December. Although the Lady Eagles did not lose to any team seeded below them in the tournament, they weren't always overwhelming.
Notre Dame and Grundy County have the lowest seedings in the six-team league, both with 2-8 district records. Signal Mountain got by 56-50 at Grundy on Jan. 17, then slipped past the Lady Irish 41-33 three days later at home.
"It's a very competitive district," Signal Mountain coach Kendra Bell said. "We battled through it. We kind of wanted to finish in the top two so we could get that bye. It's going to be anybody's tournament. We're looking forward to it."
Bledsoe's district losses were to the tournament's fourth- and fifth-seeded teams. The Lady Warriors lost 46-42 at Chattanooga Christian on Dec. 6, and 43-40 at Grundy County on Feb. 6. The Lady Warriors, however, beat those opponents by double digits in the other meetings.
The District 6 girls' teams were likewise competitive when playing each other.
Howard had two overtime victories during its 3-0 start in the district. Then as early as Dec. 8, when the Lady Hustlin' Tigers lost at Central, all seven teams in the district had at least one league loss.
Red Bank (15-9) won the regular-season championship with a 10-2 mark with losses to Tyner and Central. Central wound up with a 7-5 district record, including a 3-2 mark in league games decided by three or fewer points.
"Anybody can mess up anybody's night," Red Bank coach Bailey McGinnis said. "We've got to be ready every single game, whether we're playing the seventh-place team or the second-place team. We can't just walk out on the floor and win automatically. We've got to earn it. In our district, it's who's going to show up at tournament time."
Layla Babb leads the Lady Lions with close to 11.5 points per game. Point guard Shelby Romans contributes close to eight.
Keniah Watkins averages a little less than 15 points per game and LeAundra Melton scores close to nine for second-seeded Tyner (12-13), which went 9-3 in the league. One of its losses was 53-51 on Jan. 10 at East Ridge, a team that finished with a sub-.500 district record and one the Lady Rams beat by 30 a month earlier.
"You just never know," Tyner coach Katrich Williams said. "It seems like every team has beaten everybody, or played them fairly close. If you don't come ready every night that you're supposed to play, you can lose to anybody."
Tyner (21-2, 11-1) is District 6's top-seeded boys' team. Chattanooga Christian (24-2, 9-0) is No. 1 in District 7.
Other districts
The District 5-AAA tournament at Soddy-Daisy, which is set to begin Wednesday, is among the other TSSAA Division I basketball tournaments being held locally. Ooltewah's girls and boys play Soddy-Daisy at 6 and 7:30 to get things started.
The girls' consolation game and final are scheduled for next Monday at 6 and 7:30. The boys' third-place game and championship are the next night at the same times.
Bradley Central (26-0), the state's No. 2-ranked team, was the girls' regular-season winner. The No. 5 Cleveland boys (22-3) are the other top-seeded team.
Recent widespread illness in schools created some scheduling problems with District 5-A's tournament, which was originally set to be played at Chattanooga State and conclude Saturday. Instead, action won't begin until next Monday at a site to be determined because Copper Basin's boys and girls each had three regular-season district games to make up before tournament play can begin.
The district had to get permission from the TSSAA to play four games a day next Tuesday and Wednesday. The tournament concludes Wednesday with consolation and championship games.
Games those two days are scheduled at Arts & Sciences at 3 p.m., 4:30, 6 and 7:30. CSAS won the boys' regular-season title. Silverdale Baptist Academy is the No. 1-seeded girls' team.
District 6-A gets started Tuesday at higher-seeded teams. Thursday's quarterfinals and beyond are at Marion County.
The girls' third-place and championship games are scheduled next Monday at 6 and 7:30 EST. The boys' consolation game and final are Tuesday at the same times.
The top-seeded teams are Marion County's girls and Van Buren's boys.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.